‘Frozen’ a chillingly effective new thriller

Thursday

Oct 28, 2010 at 12:01 AM

By Nate HensleyColumnist

The new “Frozen” is a tight, suspenseful horror-thriller from the demented mind who brought us the lovely “Hatchet.” It eschews the supernatural and tries to be as realistic as possible — the quality that makes it so gripping.Three young people on a weekend at a ski resort try to get in one last ride but become forgotten through a series of events. The resort crew turns off the ski lift, leaving the kids trapped 40 feet in the air, halfway up the mountain. With freezing temperatures and no way to call for help, one of them tries to jump for it ... and then the wolves come.To say any more would encapsulate the entire film — one that needs to be experienced to be enjoyed. There is not a lot to “Frozen” but what there is, is done perfectly. The build-up is logical, not your typical “oh, those stupid kids” scenario. And the movie manages to wring every bit of suspense and fear out of every moment. There may be more exciting or bloody horror movies out there, but this one is chillingly effective.

“THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE”: This one has already become infamous for its deeply disturbing subject matter. It is one of the most controversial films of the year, and for good reason. (It’s hard to even describe this movie without violating the rules of a family-friendly newspaper. So I’ll tread lightly here.)Two stupid American girls get lost in Germany and knock on the door of a retired surgeon, who promptly kidnaps and imprisons them. This cruel and wicked man has spent his life separating conjoined twins, and now he wants to experiment by combining three people into one creature — a human centipede.The doctor, played by Dieter Laser, is one of the most strikingly evil villains in recent memory. Beyond that, “Centipede” is the kind of movie that you don’t enjoy, you endure. If you like to watch horror boundaries pushed into new realms of vile cruelty, then this is for you. But for the rest of us, “Centipede” is more of a this-is-so-gross-we-dare-you-to-watch-it movie.

“SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD”: This is the latest zombie opus from George Romero, the King of Zombies. Had this film been made by anyone else, it would merely be another bad horror movie. But this is Romero, the man who invented movie zombies with “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead,” so I hold him to a higher standard.It’s got soldiers, zombies, gore by the truckload and a Hatfield/McCoy style blood feud. So what’s the problem? In his old age, Romero has developed a fondness for the dead. And by extension, so have his characters. This time around, people are plagued by doubt — “Oh, maybe we shouldn’t kill the zombies, they are still people.” No, they are not. They were people; now they are undead cannibals. If anything, this movie should have been called “Sympathy for the Dead.”

“SPLICE”: This one is a sci-fi horror film that tries to find a balance between the two genres and ends up being not horrific enough nor sci-fi enough. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley star as genetic biologists who create new life forms by dabbling with human DNA. They create Dren, a nasty little bug that grows up to become a little girl with chicken-style legs and eyes too big for her face. As she grows, she continues mutating, leading up to a series of bloody twists and turns.As it stands, the film has decent special effects and a couple of nice gross-out moments. That the gross-outs are my favorite part of the film probably speaks more to my taste than the quality of the movie.

“THE CRAZIES”: Released three months ago, this is one of the better horror flicks in a sub-standard year for scary movies. Timothy Olyphant stars as a small-town sheriff who’s in over his head after a classified military plane crashes near the town water supply. Some insidious chemical agent in the plane leaks out, and when the townspeople drink it, they turn into homicidal maniacs. It’s a neat variation on the zombie premise but these wrecks of humanity don’t want to eat people, just kill them. “The Crazies” is short on explicit gore, but long on suspense. Olyphant is a solid leading man who helps make this movie a scary, fun little flick.So there you have it: This new horror movie round-up is admittedly less than stellar, but there’s enough variety here to represent all different flavors of horror. Now, if you want something really scary, go old school, and grab “The Exorcist” or “The Shining.”